92-YEAR OLD MAHATHIR AS PM CANDIDATE FROM MALAYSIA'S OPPOSITION ALLIANCE
Malaysia’s opposition coalition on Sunday designated 92-year old former
premier Mahathir Mohamad as its prime ministerial candidate for a general
election that must be called by August.
With the country’s most popular opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim in
confinement, Mahathir is seen as discerned as the most immensely colossal
threat for Prime Minister Najib Razak, who is engulfed in a corruption scandal.
Mahathir, who earned a reputation during his 22-year tenure as prime
minister of being a no-inanity authoritarian with little time for dissenters
promoting liberal values, stands to become the world’s oldest leader if the
opposition acquires victory.
A victory could withal potentially pave the way for former Mahathir foe
Anwar to become the prime minister.
Mahathir and Anwar’s wife Wan Azizah Wan Ismail will be the Pakatan
Harapan coalition’s candidates for the premier and deputy prime ministerial
posts respectively, secretary general Saifuddin Abdullah verbalized at the
alliance’s convention.
If the opposition victoriously triumphs, the component parties have
acceded to immediately commence the licit processes to obtain a royal pardon
for Anwar, Saifuddin verbalized.
“...So that Anwar could immediately play a role in the federal regime
and subsequently be proposed as a candidate for the eighth prime minister,” he said.
The Mahathir-Anwar coalition and their endorsement of each other is a
turnaround from their bitter feud that has shaped Malaysia’s political
landscape for nearly two decades.
Anwar was once a protege of Mahathir, and the rising star of Malaysian
politics, but they had a falling-out in the late 1990s. Soon afterwards, Anwar
was jailed on charges of sodomy and graft, after being sacked as the deputy
prime minister. He denied the charges, dismissing them as politically
motivated.
Anwar later led an opposition alliance to stunning electoral gains in
2013. Najib’s Barisan Nasional coalition lost the popular vote in that
election, but managed to stay in power after winning a majority of the seats in
parliament.
But Anwar was convicted and jailed again in 2013 for sodomizing a
former aide, a charge he and his supporters describe as an attempt to end his
career.
The sodomy conviction disqualifies Anwar from political office and from
contesting the next election. A royal pardon, however, would let him contest.
Opposition to Prime Minister Najib has brought Anwar and Mahathir back
together, with their parties now working in the opposition coalition.
Najib has been embroiled in a corruption scandal involving state fund
1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB). In civil lawsuits, the U.S. Equity
Department has alleged that about $4.5 billion was misappropriated from 1MDB.
The fund has gainsaid any malfeasance and Najib, who founded 1MDB, has
gainsaid all allegations of corruption against him and was cleared of
malfeasance by Malaysia’s attorney-general.
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